Page:Tales of John Oliver Hobbes.djvu/365

for the whole of Tennyson! And you have got your hair done differently. Let me see whether I like it? Yes, I do. Are the sleeves meant to look like a bishop's? Jane, may I kiss you?"

"No," said Jane.

Perhaps he did not hear. At all events, it made no difference. And, indeed, she did not seem to think that it would. His kisses were becoming (from his own point of view) agreeably indefinite when she asked a question. This was the question—

"Did you leave The Cloisters very early this morning?"

"Shall we sit over there by that green dragon?" he suggested, gravely.

He chose a chair with its back to the light. Jane sat opposite with the sun shining in on her face. This, he felt, was as it should be. He did not like to see women afraid of the sun.

"I left The Cloisters this morning," he said, "and I return to Oxford this afternoon."

She checked a sigh ; she certainly could not expect him to waste his time with her.

"Do you like Lady Hyde-Bassett ?" she said, trying to look cheerful.

"Very much," said De Boys; "she is charming. But she is whim-ish, of course, like most women."

"And that Miss Bellarmine you mentioned in your last letter?"

"She has a fine figure, but she jaws too much. No one can get a word in, when she takes up an argument. I cannot bear these blue-stockings myself. Fielding's Amelia is, in my mind, the highest type of woman!"